PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, in response to the Canadian government's recent decision to terminate a contribution agreement it had between MIFTAH and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, says that Canada is indulging in political blackmail at the expense of Palestinian civil institutions.

The project was terminated shortly following Dr. Ashrawi's response to Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird's insistence that the Palestinians are making a "huge mistake" by going to the ICC by asserting that acceptance of such a notion is allowing Israel to persist in its violations and war crimes.

"Israel is enabled by apologists like John Baird to persist with the support of self-appointed advocates who become complicit in these war crimes," Dr. Ashrawi said.

The Representative Office of Canada had requested that Dr. Ashrawi accompany the Canadian Representative on a visit to the project and, later, she was asked to write a letter expressing gratitude for this specific Canadian project.

As Head of the Board of Directors, Dr. Ashrawi has no executive authority nor has she ever issued such statements or carried out such visits in relation to MIFTAH's projects.

Dr. Lily Feidy, as CEO of MIFTAH, is the proper addressee for all such responsibilities; however, the Canadian Representative Office insisted it should be done by Dr. Ashrawi herself.

In response, the project was suspended and the agreement terminated.

Dr. Ashrawi commented: "The Palestinians and their institutions are not up for sale, and should not be subjected to extortion. Canada's decision to end the cooperation agreement is a blatant attempt to extract political concessions in return for economic support for projects."

Dr. Ashrawi issues political and policy statements as a member of the PLO Executive Committee and, in this capacity, her role is completely separate from her volunteer work in civil society organizations.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) warned of the appointment of Nikolay Mladenov as United Nations envoy, replacing Robert Serry, to the Middle East peace process for being known for his support of Israel.

Kayed al-Ghoul, member of the PFLP Political Bureau, said of the appointment “It is contradictory to any effort leading to real peace with justice in the region; rather Mladenov will offer a real cover for the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people”.

Ghoul said, in a statement on Thursday, that the appointment of Mladenov in this position is a further attempt by powerful parties in the international organization, particularly the United States, to strengthen the position of the occupation state in international institutions concerned with the Palestinian cause and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In the same context, Ghoul denounced the attacks and pressures to which William Schabas, chair of the International Commission of Inquiry investigating the Israeli attack on Gaza and its war crimes against the Palestinian people, was subjected to by Israel and its allies, forcing his resignation and leading to his replacement by a US judge on the panel.

“This was clearly an attempt by the Netanyahu government to cut the road in front of the findings of Schabas on the crimes of the occupation in its war on Gaza”, said Ghoul.

Ghoul called on PA President Abu Mazen to take action urgently to stop the appointment of Mladenov because of his clear history of bias in favor of the Israeli occupation.

“It is definitely in contradiction with the rights of the Palestinian people and incompatible with the growing international public demand to hold the Israeli state accountable for its crimes and siege, and to support the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom and justice”, he said.

Serry, whose name has been linked to Gaza reconstruction, is to end his work as UN envoy for Middle East peace process in March. He has been serving the position since 2007.

The legal period of the UN envoy for this assignment is five years. However, the UN Secretary General has the power to extend the term as happened with Serry who served the position for eight successive years.

Mladenov is known for his statements in support of Israel and justification of its crimes against the Palestinian people since he was foreign minister of Bulgaria.

Resigned head of the UN probe commission William Schabas said Israeli leaders' claims against him do not offend him because he does not respect them at all."I was not insulted. To be insulted you need to respect the people who criticize you, and I do not have respect for them," he replied to a question in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth about whether Israeli officials' scathing attack on him insulted him and forced him to resign.

"Even if there was another committee, Netanyahu would come out against it. People like Netanyahu will accuse any committee of being anti-Israel," he said.

Responding to the consultation work he provided for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the past, Schabas said, "I have a long record of consulting activities and they did not ask me about that work."

"I am a professional who is invited to give opinions to organizations and governments. I do not take sides and I did not represent the Palestinians."

When asked if his resignation was a victory for Israel as some claimed, Schabas said, "When the report is published, Israel will know if it succeeded or failed. It is childish to define the resignation as a victory."

On 2 February 2015 Prof. dr. William A. Schabas, Chairperson of the Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the 2014 Gaza Conflict established by the Human Rights Council at its 21st special session on July 23 2014, submitted his resignation. The members of the COI were appointed in August 2014 by the President of the Human Rights Council pursuant to recommendations by the Office of the Hight Commissioner for Human Rights.After its establishment, the COI started its work despite severe restrictions imposed by Israel and the launching of a smear campaign including harassment, intimidation and abuse directed against its Chairperson Prof. Schabas and the Commission and the Human Rights Council in general.In line with its notorious history of non-cooperation with the United Nations including its special rapporteurs and investigative teams, Israel categorically refused to cooperate with the COI and allow it entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, to carry out its mandate, despite consistent attempts by the COI and various international actors to secure Israeli cooperation in this regard.Following the submission of a letter by Israel to the President of the Human Rights Council demanding Prof. Schabas' dismissal on the pretext that he had provided an expert legal opinion to the PLO in 2012, and the President's subsequent indication that he would seek legal advice from the UN Headquarters in New York on the matter, Prof. Schabas submitted his resignation explaning that the work of the Commission would be best served in this way given that it would be difficult for him to proceed with his work as Chairperson while a legal inquiry considering his removal is being conducted.The Commission of Inquiry will continue its work with the remaining two commissioners as well as the Secretariat established by the OHCHR. Its report is expected to be presented at the Human Rights Council on 23 March 2015.Despite the fact that the legal opinion provided by Prof. Schabas to the PLO in 2012 in no way indicates a conflict of interest with his work as a Commissioner, and was provided strictly in Prof. Schabas' capacity as a leading academic specialist in international law, Israel's insistence that he be dismissed is unsurprising given Israel's use of similar petty smear tactics inter alia in 2009, when it launched a campaign to discredit members of the Independent UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict in 2009 as well as over the past decades in relation to reports published by other UN bodies and mandated personnel addressing Israel's gross, systematic and persistent violations to international humanitarian and human rights law.Schabas's departure highlights the sensitivity of the UN investigation just weeks after prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said they had started a preliminary inquiry into alleged atrocities in the Palestinian territories.In the letter, Schabas said a legal opinion he wrote for the Palestine Liberation Organization that "[his] views on Israel and Palestine as well as on many other issues were well known and very public," he wrote. "This work in defence of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks ...", Reuters reported.Israel had long criticized Schabas's appointment, citing his record as a strong critic of the Zionist state and its current political leadership.Schabas said his work for the PLO had prompted the Human Rights Council's executive on Monday to seek legal advice from UN headquarters about his position."I believe that it is difficult for the work to continue while a procedure is underway to consider whether the chair of the commission should be removed," he wrote.The commission had largely finished gathering evidence and had begun writing the report, he added.

Israel has called for the termination of a UN inquiry into its summer 2014 war on Gaza, in the wake of the resignation of the investigation committee’s head.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the shelving of the investigation on Tuesday, after William Schabas, the head of the UN inquiry committee, resigned a day before.“After the resignation of the committee chairman who was biased against Israel, the report that was written at the behest of the UN Human Rights Council -- an anti-Israel body, the decisions of which prove it has nothing to do with human rights -- needs to be shelved,” Netanyahu said.In August 2014, the UN Human Rights Council appointed Schabas, a Canadian academic, to lead a group examining war crimes committed by Israel during its military aggression against Gaza.Schabas’ appointment had angered Israel from the beginning as he has been a strong critic of the Tel Aviv regime.The Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman took a dim view of Schabas’ resignation, saying, “It won’t change the committee’s report’s conclusions.”Israel claims Schabas is biased toward the Palestinians due to a legal opinion he wrote for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2012. However, Schabas insists that consultancy work he did for the PLO was not different from advice he had given to many other governments and organizations.“Under the circumstances and with great regret, I believe the important work of the commission is best served if I resign with immediate effect,” Schabas wrote in his resignation letter.Schabas stated in the Monday letter to the UNHRC that he would resign so that Israel’s allegations of bias could not overshadow the preparation of the report and its findings, slated to be released in March.“My views on Israel and Palestine as well as on many other issues were well known and very public,” he wrote in the letter, adding, “This work in defense of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks.”Joachim Ruecker, the president of the UNHRC, has accepted the resignation, his spokesman, Rolando Gomez, stated, adding that “in this way even an appearance of conflict of interest is avoided, thus preserving the integrity of the process.”Gomez further noted that the UN commission is in “the final phase of collecting evidence” and a new chairman could be named as early as Tuesday.About 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in the Israeli onslaught, which started in early July 2014 and ended in late August.Some 100,000 people are still homeless in the besieged coastal sliver.

The head of a UN inquiry into last summer’s Israeli military offensive in Gaza has said he will resign after Israeli allegations of bias, due to consultancy work he did for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

William Schabas, a Canadian academic, was appointed last August by the head of the UN Human Rights Council to lead a three-member group looking into war crimes during the offensive.

Al Ray reports that, according to the Guardian and in a letter to the commission, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to prevent the issue from overshadowing the preparation of the report and its findings, which are due to be published in March.

Schabas’ departure highlights the sensitivity of the UN investigation just weeks after prosecutors at the international criminal court in The Hague said they had started a preliminary inquiry into atrocities committed in the Palestinian territories.

In the letter, Schabas said that a legal opinion he authored for the PLO in 2012, and for which he was paid some $1,300 (£900), was not different from advice he had given to many other governments and organizations.

“My views on Israel and Palestine as well as on many other issues were well known and very public,” he wrote. “This work in defence of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks.”

Israel has long criticized Schabas’ appointment, citing his record as a strong critic of "the Jewish state" and its current political leadership. Schabas said his work for the PLO had prompted the Human Rights Council’s executive to seek legal advice about his position from UN headquarters on Monday.

“I believe that it is difficult for the work to continue while a procedure is underway to consider whether the chair of the commission should be removed,” he wrote, adding that the commission had largely finished gathering evidence and had begun writing the report.

The appointment of Schabas, who lives in Britain and teaches international law at Middlesex University, was welcomed at the time by Hamas but was harshly criticized by Jewish groups in the US.

Schabas, at the time, had said that he was determined to put aside any views about “things that have gone on in the past”.

The commission is looking into the behavior of both the Israelis and of Hamas.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says the Palestinian Authority’s decision to become a member in the International Criminal Court is a permanent one and cannot be revoked."All powers on earth will never bring the clock back," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio on Sunday.He accused Israel of violating all international laws and conventions through reliance on “the logic of arrogance”. He also accused the US Congress of protecting Israel.The Palestinian official further warned that the PA would review its political and security ties with Tel Aviv if Israel continues its policy of settlement expansion and withholding the Palestinian tax money. He said that a high-profile meeting is scheduled to be held later in February to decide on the future of ties with Israel.Israel has frozen the tax revenue it collects from Palestinian imports in response to the PA bid to join the ICC. The Israelis have also called on the international community to stop funding the court. The Tel Aviv regime is hugely fearful that PA’s accession to the ICC would result in the prosecution of leaders as they have been involved in numerous cases of crimes against Palestinian civilians, which amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.The United States has also criticized PA for making the efforts, calling it an “unconstructive way to go ahead in the Middle East peace process”.The US State Department issued a statement early January saying that Palestine is not a sovereign state and therefore does not qualify to join ICC. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, however, has said Palestine will become an ICC member by April 1.American senators have also threatened the Palestinian leadership with a “strong response” over the decision. The fierce criticism from the Tel Aviv regime and Washington came after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas signed the documents required for Palestine to join 20 international organizations, including the ICC.

The Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu announced a decision to freeze the tax funds allotted to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a punitive measure in response to its appeal to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).The Israeli government has decided to halt the transfer of a 100- million-dollar batch of tax revenues collected this month after $127m collected on behalf of the PA were held back last month, the Yisrael Hayom newspaper said Sunday.

The decision falls in line with Israel’s dismay over Palestinians’ appeal to join the ICC in an attempt to probe Israeli war crimes.

“Abbas has crossed all red lines,” a statement by the Israeli occupation government read.

Israeli and European parties have warned of an impending breakdown to hit the PA in case Israel continues to withhold tax revenues, accounting for two-thirds of the authority's budget.

“It is unknown for how long will the Palestinians be able to survive” the newspaper quoted an informed Israeli source as wondering, adding that the PA is expected to fall apart within a four-month-deadline.

Meanwhile, the PA Premier Rami al-Hamdallah said Sunday that a portion of governmental employees' salaries would be provided as of February in case the PA’s tax revenues are still withheld.

He said international efforts have been underway to have the tax revenues dispatched to the PA at the soonest time possible.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) condemned Israel's plan to build 450 housing units in the West Bank and Jerusalem as a new war crime that must be officially reported to the International Criminal Court (ICC).In a press release on Saturday, the PFLP stated that the Israeli occupation's persistence in building more housing units in settlements on the lands of the West Bank and Jerusalem is an Israeli systematic policy aimed at ending any possibility for the Palestinians to have sovereignty over their territories.

The PFLP emphasized that the Palestinian response to such Israeli policy should be through adopting and supporting the comprehensive resistance option against the Israeli occupation, especially the armed resistance that has proven success and efficacy in deterring the occupation.

It added that the Palestinians should also respond to the settlement expansion policy by renouncing the peace process and resisting any international attempts to pressure them to return to the negotiation path.

The Israeli occupation authority announced a few days ago tenders for the construction of 450 housing units in three settlement blocs in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Making up about half of both Gaza and the West Bank's population, children are the life force that keep Palestine alive and hopeful. During this summer's war, over 500 of these children were murdered. Babies were killed, toddlers were killed, teenagers were killed. They were innocent and when innocent blood is spilled, I believe it is a declaration of war on all of humanity. See, when a powerful Western-backed military starts raining missiles on a heavily populated strip of land, people die.

Civilians die, militants die, adults die but most tragically of all, children die. In what way can that be justified?

"Israel has the right to defend itself." At what cost?

Anyone paying attention to Palestinian news will see the trend of severe child abuse from Israeli forces. It is obvious that the reasoning behind kidnapping and detaining Palestinian children has much to do with breaking them.

Breaking their spirits, breaking their families’ spirits, and in turn, breaking the Palestinian spirit.

The Defense for Children International has described the year 2014 as the most difficult year for Palestinian children and it comes as no surprise. An average of 500 - 700 Palestinian children are arrested, detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military detention system each year.

These children are kidnapped in the dead of night for absolutely no reason; they are detained, not allowed to see their families.

Threatened, beaten, grossly abused. They are held for days on end without seeing a judge or being formally charged with a crime. In no other country but Israel are children tried as adults in military court.

Just as the UN report from 2013 on this subject says, the abuse of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons is "widespread, systematic, and institutionalized."

Since September 29, 2000, close to 3,000 Palestinian children have been killed. One minute, they are outside playing or walking home from school. The next, they are under a settler's car.

Or staring a gun down it's barrel. What I would like to know is why aren't more people outraged? Why isn't the entire world screaming about this? The reports chill me to the bone.

IT is incomprehensible that people can go on with their daily lives after being witness to these heinous crimes.

This situation can only change if people are speaking out about it. People who are aware of the physical and psychological abuse Palestinians face yet continue to be silent about it have blood on their hands.

Being silent is being complacent and that is truly unforgivable.

Israeli Police are not the only cause of this horrific child abuse; settlers are guilty, also. In October 2014, Inas Shawkat Khalil and Toleen Omar Asfour, both 5-years-old, were run over by Israeli settlers; Toleen survived but Inas succumbed to her wounds.

A month before that, a settler ran over 6-year-old Mohammad al-Jabari in Hebron, and in December 2014, a settler ran over 8-year-old Ali Qrei'esh in the West Bank.

As recently as January 23 of 2015, an Israeli settler ran over 5-year-old Nabeel Hasan Drobi.

Lately these occurrences take place on a monthly basis, like clockwork.

In July of 2014, 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was murdered by Israeli settlers; preliminary results from the autopsy suggested that he was beaten and burned while still alive.

These are just a few of the many instances where young Palestinians are singled out by Israeli settlers.

In Gaza, children are freezing to death. Families are living in graveyards, have no electricity and no heat as well as basically no help from the international community.

Israel will not let construction supplies into Gaza to rebuild, knowing hundreds of thousands of people will suffer because of it.

The government is well aware that many children will not survive such awful conditions.

The Israeli government and military do not see Palestinian children as humans. They do not see any Palestinian person as human, only as scum. Potential terrorists. Children will no doubt grow up to be terrorists or work for Hamas.

To the Israeli public, the hearts of Palestinian children are where Israel's destruction begins. To Palestinians, the children are the reason for hope.

Hope for a future to be different from the nightmare of the present. Hope for the return to the homes they were expelled from so many decades ago.

There is this cancerous indifference that has spread throughout the world and it is destructive to the Palestinian plight. It is this indifference that keeps generation after generation of Palestinians from seeing the lives they all deserve. Lives full of opportunity and freedom.

Lives without the fear of being shot dead in the street just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time; without fear of your home being demolished or being hit by a mortar shell.

It is a life all people deserve to live. A life full of happiness and simple joy; a life where children get to stay children for just a bit longer.

Israel continues its abuse on Palestinian children in hopes of quelling the resistance but after 70 years, it is obvious that the resistance will never die out. With each injustice, it grows stronger.

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Erynn Baker is the personal assistant of the North American Spokesperson and Media Liaison for IMEMC.

She has been advocating for the rights of Palestinians in the oPt and abroad since she was 16 years old. You can find her @erynnbak on Twitter or her blog thejacobcrisis.wordpress.com.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem Wednesday accused the Israeli
occupation army of targeting Palestinian civilians during last summer’s
offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip.

“A hallmark of the fighting in Gaza this summer was the numerous strikes
on residential buildings, destroying them while their occupants were
still inside,” a 49-page report by B’Tselem read.

“This aspect of the fighting was particularly appalling”, and was “the
result of a policy formulated by government officials and the senior
military command,” the report added.

The non-governmental organization probed 70 Israeli raids killing 606
Palestinians, 70 percent among whom were either under 18, over 60, or
female,

According to a UN report, over 2,200 Palestinians, 70% among whom
civilians, were mass-murdered during last summer’s 51-day Israeli
offensive on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

"You cannot say that the army didn't know or couldn't know how many
civilians would get killed during those attacks," B'Tselem's head of
research Yael Stein said.

"You can't maybe (know) on the first day or the second day. But on the
10th day or the 20th day, when you see how many civilians are getting
killed... these attacks shouldn't have happened," she added.